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Im done selling gear on eBay, due to dishonest Buyers

12-17-2012, 09:59 PM

After 12 years of many successful gear auctions, I am fed up with eBay and the dishonest buyers who by gear. In the past month I have had 2 cases opened against me for refunds by buyers on gear that was practically brand new, factory fresh because the buyer did not know what they were buying and wanted to send it back. EBays Resolution Case policy almost always sides with the buyer even when the buyer is being dishonest. None the less I will be closing my account on Ebay, as it is not worth the hassle any more. It really used to be a great way to sell gear but not any longer.

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I sold my Triton a couple of months ago. Almost gave up on ebay this time...

1st listing, winning bidder had no feedback and had only created their account that same day. I canceled their bid and re-listed.

2nd listing, winning bidder didn't pay, then came up with a silly explanation of not thinking shipping charges would be added. When I raised an unpaid item case against them they got abusive, obtained my contact details from ebay (can't believe how easy it was for them) and started to stalk me by email, phone, etc... kinda scary. I gave in to the intimidation and canceled the auction just to be rid of them.

3rd listing... renewed my faith in mankind. Great buyer, paid on time, and was very happy with his purchase. Sigh of relief.

Overall not a great experience, but it worked out in the end. So I might use ebay again.

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My ****************ty eBay experience was as a buyer. Purchased a AX7 keytar from a buyer with a 99.7% "positive" rating. Item was listed as being in "excellent" condition, all the buttons working and only "cosmetic" scratches.

The item arrived - there was a HUGE crack in the "neck" of the unit. It was not just a superficial thing - when you held the unit with your hand on the neck - the crack actually flexed. It wasn't anything that happened during shipping - because you could see the discoloration of the plastic around the crack itself. The "all the buttons" claim was roughly 50% true.

I opened the box, took one look at the device and immediately started a claim.

Never again. I'll take my chances with Craigslist - and only on items that I can see prior to purchasing.

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I dont want to get into any details here as it is not the place, but in both cases eBay found in the dishonest buyers favor to submit a full refund to them.

ironically the items returned to me were resold and commanded an even higher price than originally sold for to the dishonest buyers and the second buyers were extremely happy with there purchases. One of these the original buyer claimed it did not work but was in perfect working order when I received it back.

Even so the whole process is extremely frustrating so much so that I will no longer subject myself to it.

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For me, Craigslist is the way to go. When buying, I get to check out the item thoroughly before handing over the money, there are no shipping hassles, no shill bidders to drive up the price artificially, no items broken in transit, and I get to haggle with the seller in person. And when I'm selling gear, there are no listing fees to pay.

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One of my listings said US shipping only and some guy in France won the auction. We had to do a neutral feedback thing, which still kind of bugs me because I've got 100%+ except for the one neutral.

Then I sold an Alesis Micron to a dude that refused to pay or respond. Had to re-list. A pain in the ass and a waste of a week and a half.

Bought a relatively pricey remote controlled helicopter that was listed as "New in box" but the factory seal had been broken and there was a big scuff on the nose. When I politely complained to the seller he promised he'd give me a full refund if I left him positive feedback, and stupidly I trusted him. The tosser only gave me half of my money back. So I tried filing a complaint with Ebay for feedback extortion and sent them the chain of emails. They didn't do a damn thing. Although I ended up getting a bit of revenge by posting about the seller on some RC hobby forums. Plenty of folks thanking me for warning them, as many had considered purchasing from him.

Then I had an issue with their policy change that froze my PayPal funds until feedback was left from the buyer. I used my card that was tied to the account and got overdraft fees. I had no clue they'd changed their policy and the funds showed as "available" but they really weren't. It's crap, and also ridiculous that I had to wait weeks for the buyer to release the money after it had arrived.

I'm not having much luck selling some gear right now. I know it's the holidays and a bad time to be selling gear but I really don't want to have to list it on Ebay. My Craigslist posts get shoved down in a matter of hours, drowned in a ocean of cheap gawdy guitars, free pianos and consumer grade Casio boards.

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For me, Craigslist is the way to go. When buying, I get to check out the item thoroughly before handing over the money, there no shipping hassles, no shill bidders to drive up the price artificially, no items broken in transit, and I get to haggle with the seller in person. And when I'm selling gear, there are no listing fees to pay.

In the real world you know more or less where the "avoid" zones of town are. The web affords this shady element free, anonymous run. Worse, I think it's built into the equation.

Originally posted by Unconfigured Static HTML Widget...

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What you guys are experiencing is normal in retail world. There will always be abusive buyers, sellers, etc. There will also be good people that you deal with. If you want to stick your neck out there and do business, you have to be ready because different types of people will respond...

Similar things will happen with Craigslist, buyers will want your items then back out, or when you meet with them they'll say "this is all I've got in cash..." which will be substantially less than what you agreed on... and so on.

Still, I usually try Craigs first to avoid the feebays, but even in an area as big as the Atlanta metro area, it's still difficult to sell things. I've been trying to sell a microphone for less than what it goes on Ebay, for months now. And I just ended up trading a guitar that I was selling for months as well - trade plus cash turned out to be more than I was asking for, but at least I got some cash and an acoustic that I needed anyway...

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I've had a bizarre run on stuff, particularly buyers coming up with what i'm pretty sure are false 'faults' to try and haggle a refund.

One guy bought a pair of tannoy speakers from me that worked fine. He then complains that the sensitivity of them isn;t right and he knows this because he has an identical pair already that give a different loudness per watt. O_o and keeps asking me what i'm going to do about it, I tell him it seems unlikely something has failed in both that has no detrimental effect other than to alter the sensitivity so perhaps the manufacturers changed the spec? then he starts saying they're damaged and he wants a refund, then after about a week of arguing he decides that they arrived bashed up too only he didn;t mention it before and has fixed it anyway.

Another guy I sold a minidisk player to claimed it was a biological hazard due to the levels of cat hair and that it was so bad he couldn;t physically touch it and had to pick it up with tongs and carry it into the garage. I told him not to take the piss, he left me negative feedback with abusive comment that ebay are too half assed to remove.

I think some people will come up with any old crap just to get a couple of extra quid off.

Originally Posted by Metrosonus

working in a library I wish women would just come right out and say "where do you keep your soft core / torture porn at?"

Originally Posted by swardle

Well, I've never seen such filth in my entire life. Disgustation!!!

That's called pain. Get used to it.

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It's true that whether you're selling on Ebay or CL you have to do your research and be aware of all the different scams people will try to pull. If you're selling on CL, it's a good idea to include as a byline "local cash sale only, no shipping, no scammers," etc. If they know up front that you're onto their game, scammers will tend to pass you up since they're really looking for that segment of the population that doesn't know how it works.

Craigslist certainly has its problems. The fact that it's free has invited opportunists of all sorts. Here in Austin, I've seen sellers list items for 2 to 3 times what they're worth FOR YEARS ON END just because they can.

The flip side is that I've dealt with sellers on CL who were very appreciative of the fact that I (1) showed up at the agreed upon time, (2) showed up at all, (3) came with a real intent to buy the item, and (4) was willing to pay a fair price based on market value. That illustrates how bad it is -- when people are so surprised and relieved that it goes smoothly.

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Yeah it really sucks how much eBay went downhill, it seems like once they started implementing all the new "buyer protection" stuff a few years back it just went to ****************, it's like these scumbags KNOW they can rip you off and eBay will do nothing about it and in fact protect THEM, it really is bull****************....

I was very fortunate that I had pretty much nothing but positive experiences on eBay, but this was years ago, and it was great cuz I was able to buy a ton of great stuff and then sell it all when I went 100% ITB....I only had a few minor inconviences, and they were always from zero or low feedback buyers, but luckily I never had any major issues...

It really sucks that it is what it is now, cuz it used to be a great way to buy and sell gear...oh well....

Originally Posted by co&cafan808

chevybusa ****************in delivers the lulz!!!

Using and abusing Reason 4.0 (with tons of ReFills) and Logic 9 (with tons of soft synths, VSTi's and plug-ins)
via
a Yamaha S80 (with 2 FC7's, an FC5, an FC3, and a BC3a) and a Behringer BCR2000
on
a 4GB 2.53GHz Intel Core Duo Mac Mini
with
AKG K77 headphones or M-Audio BX5a Deluxe monitors.

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For me, Craigslist is the way to go. When buying, I get to check out the item thoroughly before handing over the money, there are no shipping hassles, no shill bidders to drive up the price artificially, no items broken in transit, and I get to haggle with the seller in person. And when I'm selling gear, there are no listing fees to pay.

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I had a flawless record as an ebay seller for almost a decade before I finally stopped using them for the same reasons.

My breaking point was selling a Oberheim Matrix 1000 in used but working condition to a dishonest buyer who as far as I can tell had buyers remorse and simply wanted his money back. He stated that it did not work when he received it. He even admitted to opening up the unit and tinkering with it in order to try to "fix" it even though he wasnt an electrician, and hammering the unit to try to straighten a bent rack ear. Even after providing all of this information from our EMAIL conversations to the rep handling the dispute case, ebay sided with the guy. I had to refund his money and if that wasnt enough, the buyer gave me my first negative feedback ever received after hundreds of transactions without any issues. And the best part of all was when I received the unit back, there was nothing wrong with it. No sign of tinkering, no hammered rack ear.

But the thing that really put me off was the rep handling the case. It was obvious the buyer was trying to pull a fast one but all the rep could say was "Hey man, the customer is always right". Really douchebag? Are you not raking in the service fees everytime I make a sale? Am I not YOUR customer?

"Give a man some fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." - Unknown